Demonstratio Evangelica 10 part 4/5

All these things, then, were clearly foretold through the Psalm concerning things that would come to pass long ages afterward, and they reached their fulfillment when, according to Matthew, two robbers being crucified with him, one on the right hand and one on the left of the Saviour, those passing by blasphemed him, shaking their heads and saying: 'Woe, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself; if thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross.'

Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him together with the elders and scribes, said: 'He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe him. If he trusts in God, let him deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, I am the Son of God.' And according to Luke: 'The people stood watching, and the rulers with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if this is the Christ, the chosen Son of God.'

According to Mark: 'And those passing by blasphemed him, shaking their heads and saying, Woe, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross.' Likewise also the chief priests, mocking one another together with the scribes, said: 'He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe him.'

How then would these things differ at all from what was foretold in the Psalm, in the words: 'But I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. All that see me have derided me, they spoke with their lips, they shook the head, saying, He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him save him, since he desires him'?

And do not marvel if these things were spoken and fulfilled concerning the passion of our Saviour, seeing that even to this day, among all men who have not yet received faith in him, it is still reckoned a reproach of men. For what could be more shameful, or worse than any reproach, than to be crucified? But it is also 'despised of the people' of the circumcision, since their whole nation, even now and to this day, is accustomed to mock and despise and spit upon him. Whence also fittingly the apostle says: 'We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, but unto the Gentiles foolishness.'

And you would find even now the things spoken next in the Psalm still said by many concerning the same one. These things, then, he prayed concerning the circumstance which then still surrounded him. But knowing that his first binding into flesh, and his birth from a woman and a virgin, was no less than the calamity of death, at the fitting point, among the things concerning his death, he also makes mention of the things of his birth, saying to the same effect: 'For thou art he that drew me out of the womb, my hope from my mother's breasts. Upon thee was I cast from the womb; from my mother's belly thou art my God.'

And fittingly he brings these things to remembrance as a consolation for release from present things. For, he says, just as thou didst become my helper when I took up a human body, when out of the very womb that bore me thou thyself, my God and my Father, as one acting as midwife, didst draw forth the flesh prepared for me from the Holy Spirit, extending thine own power, that no ambush or plot from opposing powers and evil spirits, resentful of my entrance among men, might befall me; since indeed at my very first conception too thou didst again overshadow the womb, so that the conception from the Holy Spirit of the holy Virgin might escape the notice of the rulers of this age.

This great mystery thy archangel Gabriel disclosed, saying to Mary: 'The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.' Just as, then, thy power of the Most High at that time overshadowed me while I was being conceived, and drew me forth from my mother's womb as I was being born, so also I find great comfort, that thou wilt likewise draw me up much more from death.

And hoping this, I have trusted in thee, my own God and Lord and Father -- and I have trusted, not now beginning my hope in thee for the first time, but even when, taking infant nourishment from my mother's breasts, I was reckoned, like the infants of men, to be immature and without reason; not being such, even though my body was like that of men, yet not resembling the many either in power or in essence, but free and unbound, as befits thee, the Lamb of God, and being nursed even from that age -- I mean, from my mother's breasts.

And this one will not yet consider it a great thing, if he should learn that even still earlier, 'Upon thee was I cast from the womb, and from my mother's belly thou art my God.' For while still being carried within the chamber of her who bore me, I beheld thee, my God, remaining undivided and unconfused, even amid such fellowship with the flesh -- or rather, being bodiless even then, and free of all bonds. Thus indeed 'upon thee was I cast from the womb, and from my mother's belly thou wast my God,' so that even my power, while I was still being carried in the womb, was perceived by my forerunner John before the holy Virgin -- he too being carried in Elizabeth's womb -- so that, moved by my divinity, he leapt for joy and was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Bringing then to remembrance all these things, and setting my God and my Father continually before mine eyes, fittingly also at the present time of the passion now surrounding me, when I became to thee, the Father, obedient of my own free will, and became of my own accord a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised of the people; and now, when all who see my body nailed to the cross, deeming it an abominable thing to behold, have derided me, pouring out upon me such mockery and scorn as not merely to think and ponder impious things about me in their minds, but even to speak them fearlessly and utter them openly -- for they spoke with their lips, they shook the head, saying, He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him --

-- and now, then, when such things surround me, thee, my Father, who drew me out of my mother's womb, upon whom I was cast from the womb, in whom I hoped from the breasts, thee who art known to me even from my mother's belly, and known as God -- I entreat and implore not to depart from me, for tribulation is near.

For, he says, that which is about to come, and which is already scarcely delayed and drawing near, already presses upon me and lies heavy upon me -- the very last cloud of my exceeding tribulation. For I do not yet call by the name 'tribulation' this that now surrounds me -- neither the cross, nor the reproaches from men, nor the mockeries, nor indeed the things that befell me before the cross, the scourgings, the outrages, and whatever other insolent things the sons of men have committed against me -- but rather I see the dissolution together with the body, in death itself, and the descent to Hades drawing near, and the uprising of the powers opposed and hostile to God. Wherefore I say, tribulation is near, for there is none to help.

For how was this not an exceeding and the greatest tribulation, in which there is none to help? For he was going forth for the salvation of the souls in Hades, who had been awaiting his arrival for a long age, and he was indeed about to go down to shatter the bronze gates, and break in pieces the iron bars, and set free those formerly held as prisoners of Hades -- which indeed came to pass, when many bodies of the sleeping saints, having risen, entered with him into the truly holy city of God.

But the powers opposed to him, in addition to the evils of men, made war upon him, causing him no small grief and tribulation, so that he lamented even over these on account of his exceeding goodness. But observe in what manner all these things are spoken, as from the person of him who was conceived in the womb and born from his mother's belly -- him whom we have said to be the Lamb of God.

For to him belong the events concerning the passion, just as the events of his enfleshed birth also fitted him. For that which is born also dies; and that which dies obtains death in no other way than by having first passed through birth.

These things, then, our Savior and Lord recounts — not insofar as he exists in nature without flesh and without body, nor insofar as he is conceived of as God the Word and God, but insofar as he was able, in the prayer to the Father, to say: 'For you are he who drew me out of the womb, my hope from my mother's breasts. Upon you I was cast from the womb; from my mother's womb you are my God.'

He, then, having come to his passion, prays these things set forth to the Father; and, he says, since so many opposing powers were about to stand around me — unclean demons, and spiritual forces of wickedness, and, worst of all, the very ruler of this age himself — whom, because of their wickedness, it is fitting to call evil beasts, whether wild bulls, or calves, or lions, or dogs — and since I was about to stand against them all, and to work no good upon them, because they would receive none of my benefits on account of their extreme habituation to evil, but moreover was to have no helper or fellow-worker of any of those aforementioned in the contest on behalf of the souls in Hades, how could I not reasonably say also, 'For trouble is near, for there is none to help'? Now that the evil and opposing powers should not work together with him nor help him as he brought good, was nothing wonderful; but this, it seems, was the greatest of all the affliction that pressed upon him most: that none, not even of the auspicious and right-hand angels, nor indeed of the divine powers, dared to set foot in the kingdoms of death, nor to work together in aid of the souls there.

For to him alone was this granted unshaken: since to him alone were the gates of death opened, and the gatekeepers of Hades, seeing him alone, cowered in fear; and he himself who held the power of death, stepping back from his royal thrones, inasmuch as he recognized him alone as his own lord, spoke to him gently with entreaty and supplication, according to what is set forth concerning these things in Job.

But nevertheless, seeing the impious domination of the tyrant so strong that none other of those in heaven dared to be present with him in those regions there and to work together for the salvation of the souls there, he fittingly says, 'For trouble is near, for there is none to help,' since the one alone who was able to help him there also had left him — so that the brilliance and excellence of his own choice, and of his victory over all, might be proclaimed to all.

And since the only one able to help him was not then a helper to him, he fittingly said at the beginning, 'Eli, lama sabachthani,' that is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Now, at the time he was conceived and carried in the womb by the holy virgin, the paternal power was with the one thus signified, when the Holy Spirit came upon the virgin, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and the Father himself, as the account has shown, drew forth the one being begotten from the womb; but when he stripped for the contest against death at the time of the passion, the helper was no longer present with him.

This, then, I believe, testifies to him. For 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,' said by him on the cross, and prophetically proclaimed beforehand by the psalm, and 'for trouble is near, for there is none to help,' what else did they show than that, as a great athlete, he had been set forth against so many antagonists, while the God over all served as judge and umpire of what was happening? He called upon the Father as overseer of what was being done, and as an assistant present with him, like a good trainer at his side, to be present with him — especially since there was no other helper for him but the one sole umpire of what was happening.

Therefore he says in prayer, 'Do not depart from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.' And seeing with divinely-inspired eyes, while his body was still fastened to the scaffold, the bodiless powers invisible to men, outside round about this air, coiling about him like ravenous birds of prey and in the manner of wild beasts, and, in view of the fact that his body was about, before long, to be a corpse, seeing the rulers and authorities of the air streaming together from every side — of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience — and moreover the demons flying about the earth throughout the whole inhabited world of men, and, it is likely, also the subterranean beasts already, and the wild and fearsome beasts in Tartarus itself, concerning whom Isaiah, addressing the fallen morning star cast down from heaven, said, 'Hades below was embittered, meeting you; all the giants rose up together with you' — seeing, then, all these things surrounding the impaled body from without and preparing themselves against him, he depicts their array, saying, 'Many calves surrounded me, fat bulls encompassed me; they opened their mouth against me, as a ravening and roaring lion.'

For considering, as is likely, that the soul dwelling in the body of Jesus was a human soul, similar to that of the many, and nothing more, the aforesaid ones opened their mouth, as intending to swallow it up just like the other souls of men. Therefore it says, 'They opened their mouth against me, as a ravening and roaring lion.'

To these he adds next, 'I was poured out like water.' One might say this was fulfilled sensibly and according to the historical account, when one of the soldiers, according to the evangelist John, pierced the side of the Lamb of God with a spear, and immediately there came out water and blood.

Nevertheless, he also seems to signify the entire deadening of his spiritual nature by what he says: 'I was poured out like water, and all my bones were scattered; my heart has become like wax melting in the midst of my belly; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my throat.'

For what else could all these things signify but the condition of a dead body? He immediately adds, saying, 'And you have brought me down into the dust of death.' He said these things foreseeing them as not yet come to pass, but as already standing near and close and surrounding him.

Then again, taking up what had already been recounted for the consolation regarding what was about to happen, he teaches what he endured when plotted against, saying, 'For many dogs surrounded me, a congregation of evildoers encompassed me' — by this, as is likely, signifying together both the soldiers and those of the circumcision who rose up against him. For the soldiers of Pilate, taking Jesus into the praetorium, gathered the whole cohort against him, and stripping him they put a scarlet cloak on him, and having plaited a crown of thorns they placed it upon his head, and a reed in his hand, and kneeling before him they mocked him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews'; and spitting on him they took the reed and struck him on the head.

And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, and put his own garments on him, and led him away to crucify him — almost fulfilling in deed the words 'For many dogs surrounded me, a congregation of evildoers encompassed me'; but also 'They pierced my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones'; and again 'They themselves observed and stared at me,' and 'They divided my garments among themselves, and cast a lot upon my clothing' was fulfilled once more, when with nails they pierced his hands and feet to the cross, and when, taking his garments, they divided them among themselves.

John, at any rate, relates it, saying: 'The soldiers, then, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, a part for each soldier. But the tunic, since it was seamless, woven from the top throughout, they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be," that the scripture might be fulfilled which says, "They divided my garments among themselves, and cast a lot upon my clothing." The soldiers, then, did these things.'

And Matthew also bears witness to what took place in this manner, saying: 'And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots, that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: "They divided my garments among themselves, and cast a lot upon my clothing"; and sitting down they kept watch over him.'

Now the dogs surrounding him, and the congregation of evildoers, were those rulers of the Jews from the circumcision, the scribes and the chief priests, and the Pharisees, who also stirred up the whole crowd to demand his blood upon themselves and upon their own children.

Isaiah, indeed, clearly calls them dogs, saying, 'All are dumb dogs, unable to bark.' For it was needful for them, even if they had not taken on the manner of shepherds, yet at least in the fashion of good dogs, guarding the rational flock of their master, and the sheep of the house of Israel, to bark knowingly — fawning upon and recognizing their own master and chief shepherd, and guarding with all watchfulness the flock entrusted to them, but barking, if need be, against those who plot against the flock from without. But they, in the manner of dogs truly dumb and mad, bore forth their barkings, savaging the sheep of the shepherd, so that fittingly it applies to them: 'Many dogs surrounded me, a congregation of evildoers encompassed me.'

And all who, even to this day, act in a manner similar to those men, blaspheming and barking against the Christ of God, could not be reckoned as strangers to them; but also those who, in the manner of those impious soldiers of that time, crucify anew the Son of God and hold him up to contempt could not be far removed from that same disposition.

All, then, even now still, who maltreat the body of Christ, that is, the Church, lay violent hands upon his hands and feet, and moreover his bones — since indeed we are all one body in Christ, and each one members of one another, and the head could not say to the feet, 'I have no need of you,' nor the eyes to the hands.

In the times of the persecutions, at any rate, if ever anything were done against the members of Christ by his enemies and adversaries, one might say of him too, not inappropriately, 'They pierced my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones. They themselves observed and stared at me.'

And then, too, they divide his garments among themselves, and cast a lot upon his clothing, when each one, corrupting the ornament of the word, that is, the very words of the divine scriptures, in one way or another, drags them off for himself, and when they take up the opinions concerning him with perverse teachings, such as is customary for godless heretics to do. Over and above all these things, directing his prayer to his own God and Lord and Father, he adds, saying, 'But you, O Lord, do not delay my help.'

For, having been left for a brief while for the display of the contest, and, alone, without helper, having stripped for the fight against death, knowing well that the help from the Father would come to him in no other way than through the resurrection from the dead, he fittingly prays, at the present moment, to find a way out from the array of his adversaries. Therefore he says, 'But you, O Lord, do not delay my help; attend to my support.'

'For through your help, my support will come to me' — on account of which support the whole psalm is fittingly entitled 'concerning the support at dawn.' Attend, then, to my support, granting me the support of the resurrection from the dead which is soon to come, at the dawn — which support I hope to obtain, when, not delaying it, you deliver my soul from the sword, and my only-begotten from the hand of the dog; when you save me from the mouth of the lion, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns.

By these things I take it he is hinting darkly at the powers of the underworld, whom it would not be within our competence to distinguish and divide by kind, as to how one of them, being a sword, was raised up against the soul of our Savior, while another, being a dog, put forth toward death a death-bearing hand, so as to lay hold of it.

Therefore he says, 'Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only-begotten from the hand of the dog.' And another evil power, leading among the beasts of that place, called a lion, opening wide the gaping mouth of death, together with the others who go down into Hades, was set to swallow up his soul as well — just as of old death, having prevailed, formerly swallowed up others — being none other than the lion here spoken of, who opened his mouth against our Savior, from whom also he entreats the Father that he himself be saved, saying, 'Save me from the mouth of the lion.'

There would also be certain other evil and God-opposing powers acting against the unicorn of God and attempting to draw him off in opposition — from whom also the unicorn of God, our Lord himself, who has the Father alone as his horn, asks that his own lowliness be delivered, saying, 'And my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns.'

And what lowliness is meant but this very one, according to which, existing in the form of God, he humbled himself and emptied himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross? For having descended to such a degree, and having arrived even at this point — I mean, even to the sword in Hades, and to the hand of what is there called the dog (whence it is likely that the children of the Greeks, having half-heard something of this sort, also depict a dog of death, and this one with three heads) — and having come even to the jaws of the aforementioned lion, and having laid his own lowliness beneath the opposing and God-opposing unicorns, and having, in this as the very end, brought to a stop the whole economy of his own self-emptying and humiliation, and then, having already prayed at last to obtain the help and support from the Father, he adds, 'But you, O Lord, do not delay my help; attend to my support.'

And having said this, he did not long remain without the Father hearing him, the Father not having delayed nor put it off even the least while, but by his very deeds all but saying to him, 'While you are still speaking, I will say, "Behold, I am present."' And indeed, perceiving this, and having obtained the paternal help just as he had prayed, from this point onward he begins the hymn of victory, making the psalm concerning the support at dawn, in which he says, 'I will declare your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will hymn you.'

To his own disciples and apostles first, then, he promises to proclaim the good news of joy and exultation over him, calling them brethren.

In agreement with these things Matthew also teaches, saying: 'And behold, Jesus met them,' evidently those with Mary Magdalene, 'saying, "Hail." And they came up and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus says to them, "Do not be afraid; go, tell my brethren to go into Galilee, and there they will see me."'

And John, after the resurrection from the dead, likewise introduces Jesus saying to Mary: 'Do not touch me; for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God."'

To his own apostles first, then, whom he calls his own brethren, he says he will declare the name of the Father; and after them, in order and sequence, he promises to teach the paternal hymn to the Church established throughout the whole world upon his name.

For just as if a teacher distinguished for wisdom were to expound discourses in the midst of his disciples, so that they, hearing, might in turn also obey — in the same manner he himself too, in the midst of the assembly, he says, 'I will hymn you,' so that the Church, having learned and having heard from him in the way that is fitting, might no longer hymn the demons as before, but rather hymn the God of all alone, through him who proclaimed him.

Having promised to do these things, very consistently he then already, from this point, commands the Church and his brethren to hymn the Father. Therefore he says, 'You who fear the Lord, praise him; all you seed of Jacob, glorify him.'

'And let all the seed of Israel fear him, for he has not despised nor abhorred the supplication of the poor man, nor turned his face away from me, and when I cried to him, he heard me.' By these words he clearly set forth his deliverance from the aforementioned evils.

For if, when he cried to him, he heard him, and he had prayed to be delivered — his soul from the sword, and his only-begotten from the dog, and moreover his lowliness from the mouth of the lion and from the horns of the unicorns — it follows that we should understand that he obtained deliverance from these at the hand of him who begat him: that God did not abhor his supplication, nor turn his face away from him, but heard him when he cried.

Therefore it was granted to him, having been delivered from so many things and having escaped death, to spend time together with his own disciples and brethren, and to hymn the Father in the midst of the assembly. Observe again that he once more calls himself poor, in accordance with the prophecies previously cited, by which he was named needy and poor.

But since through these words he also set forth his resurrection, turning his discourse again to the Father, he says, 'From you comes my praise in the great assembly,' making mention of the church established in his name from the nations throughout the whole world, in which the praise concerning our Savior is sung throughout, by the nod and cooperation of his Father.

Therefore he says, 'From you comes my praise in the great assembly.' For truly great is this church, composed of every race of men, not fit to be compared, on account of the dignity and surpassing excellence of its life and the greatness of its doctrines, with the nation of the Jews and the assembly of those of the circumcision, diminished as it is in all poverty of reasoning, of life, of understanding, and of every other opinion concerning God.

Then he adds, 'I will render my vows to the Lord in the presence of all who fear him,' calling by 'those who fear him' the great church spoken of before, of whom he said, 'You who fear the Lord, praise him.' And what vows does he say he will render but those which he had promised? And what did he promise but those things by which he said, 'I will declare your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will hymn you'? For the vows are the promises, which, having promised to give in the midst of the assembly, he was affirming.